The U.S. Labor Department said non-farm payrolls increased by 57,000 during the month of November. While jobs were added for the fourth month in a row, the number fell short of economist forecasts of payroll growth of about 140,000.

The unemployment rate, however, dipped to 5.9 percent from 6 percent.

Intel
INTC, +1.49%
was also a pre-open driver, as the stock fell $1.01, or 3 percent, to $32.53, and was Instinet's most-active issue with approximately 644,600 shares traded. But Wall Street analysts were mostly positive (see more below).

"While Intel is experiencing a solid fourth quarter, we think that the good news is built into the shares are current levels," said First Albany analyst Auguste Richard.

Shares of IBM
IBM, +1.33%
wasn't active in the pre-open, after slipping 32 cents to $91.10 in after-hours trade. At an analysts update Thursday, CFO John Joyce said IBM believes that demand for business solutions will soon grow twice as fast as the rest of the information-technology industry. The company did not give any insight or forecasts regarding its current quarterly earnings or revenue estimates.

Elsewhere from the brokers, Merrill Lynch raised its fourth quarter revenue and earnings per share estimates for online auctioneer Ebay
EBAY, +2.04%
telling clients listings "continue to track materially ahead of our prior forecast." The broker said it now expects $622 million in revenue for the quarter and 22 cents a share in earnings, up from $596 million and 21 cents, respectively. But the stock slipped 41 cents to $55.50.

Terayon Communications
TERN, -0.93%
sank 72 cents, or 12 percent, to $5.05 after Deutsche Bank downgraded the communications equipment maker to "sell" from "hold." Analyst George Notter believes the company's opportunity to capture cable modem termination system business has diminished. He also cut his price target to $3.50 from $6.

Outside of tech, JetBlue shares
JBLU, +0.86%
descended $3.38, or 11 percent, to $28 after the low-fare airline said late Thursday that its operating margins are slipping amid rising industry capacity. Higher fuel costs were also having an impact (read more).

Ariad Pharmaceuticals
ARIA
rallied 72 cents, or 9.3 percent, to $8.47 after the company reported positive results in studies of its oncology product.

Shares of Nokia
NOK, +2.17%
eased 29 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $18.16, coming down from a recent run. The mobile stocks are in focus during the key, fourth-quarter holiday sales season.

According to a survey released Friday by Strategy Analytics, Nokia lost market share in the third quarter in Western Europe, in a climate of overall sales improving at a 23 percent sell-in rate on the year and up 7 percent on the quarter.

"The third quarter has historically been slow for Nokia in Europe as the company typically positions product and marketing spend for the holiday season," the market researcher said. "The combination of strong regional competition and this quarterly, company-specific dynamic has combined to create a 9 percent annual share loss for Nokia."

European and Asian stocks were drifting lower. Investors used the update from Intel as well as the U.S. decision to scrap steel tariffs to take profits in Asian markets. Those sectors have enjoyed nifty gains over the past several sessions. European chip-related stocks, such as STMicro
STM, +2.97%
and Infineon
IFX, -6.85%
were seeing declines over 1 percent on the day.

The euro hit fresh all-time highs against the dollar every day this week, but eased back below the $1.21 mark, starting Thursday.

Intel: Whisper disappointment

Intel overnight said it expected revenue to grow toward the upper end of its projection for the December quarter to between $8.5 billion and $8.7 billion. See full story.

"We think that the market was slightly disappointed that INTC didn't move the top end of its sales guidance," UBS said.

Intel also announced a $600 million charge to write down part of a $1.6 billion purchase in 1999 of DSP Communications, a maker of chipsets used in cellular baseband stations.

"Intel's failure to make any headway in the digital baseband business, and the ill-advised flash memory price hike early this year, have finally come home to roost," Merrill Lynch said.

CFO Andy Bryant during a conference call that demand so far this quarter reflected seasonal growth on top of a strong third quarter, with good demand for its primary computer processors and steady demand for its networking chips.

J.P. Morgan Securities, citing the higher gross margins, raised its 2003 earnings per share estimate for Intel to 83 cents from 81 cents, and 2004 projections to $1.20 from $1.14 a share, but kept its revenue estimates unchanged.

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